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But there will still be some to deny that it is through this
Matter that we ourselves become evil.
They will say that neither ignorance nor wicked desires arise in
Matter. Even if they admit that the unhappy condition within us
is due to the pravity inherent in body, they will urge that still
the blame lies not in the Matter itself but with the Form present
in it- such Form as heat, cold, bitterness, saltness and all
other conditions perceptible to sense, or again such states as
being full or void- not in the concrete signification but in the
presence or absence of just such forms. In a word, they will
argue, all particularity in desires and even in perverted
judgements upon things, can be referred to such causes, so that
Evil lies in this Form much more than in the mere Matter.
Yet, even with all this, they can be compelled to admit that
Matter is the Evil.
For, the quality [form] that has entered into Matter does not act
as an entity apart from the Matter, any more than axe-shape will
cut apart from iron. Further, Forms lodged in Matter are not the
same as they would be if they remained within themselves; they
are Reason-Principles Materialized, they are corrupted in the
Matter, they have absorbed its nature: essential fire does not
burn, nor do any of the essential entities effect, of themselves
alone, the operation which, once they have entered into Matter,
is traced to their action.
Matter becomes mistress of what is manifested through it: it
corrupts and destroys the incomer, it substitutes its own
opposite character and kind, not in the sense of opposing, for
example, concrete cold to concrete warmth, but by setting its own
formlessness against the Form of heat, shapelessness to shape,
excess and defect to the duly ordered. Thus, in sum, what enters
into Matter ceases to belong to itself, comes to belong to
Matter, just as, in the nourishment of living beings, what is
taken in does not remain as it came, but is turned into, say,
dog's blood and all that goes to make a dog, becomes, in fact,
any of the humours of any recipient.
No, if body is the cause of Evil, then there is no escape; the
cause of Evil is Matter.
Still, it will be urged, the incoming Idea should have been able
to conquer the Matter.
The difficulty is that Matter's master cannot remain pure itself
except by avoidance of Matter.
Besides, the constitution determines both the desires and their
violence so that there are bodies in which the incoming idea
cannot hold sway: there is a vicious constitution which chills
and clogs the activity and inhibits choice; a contrary bodily
habit produces frivolity, lack of balance. The same fact is
indicated by our successive variations of mood: in times of
stress, we are not the same either in desires or in ideas- as
when we are at peace, and we differ again with every several
object that brings us satisfaction.
To resume: the Measureless is evil primarily; whatever, either by
resemblance or participation, exists in the state of unmeasure,
is evil secondarily, by force of its dealing with the Primal-
primarily, the darkness; secondarily, the darkened. Now, Vice,
being an ignorance and a lack of measure in the Soul, is
secondarily evil, not the Essential Evil, just as Virtue is not
the Primal Good but is Likeness to The Good, or participation in
it.
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